Brocade Simplifies Small SANs

Company sticks to Fibre Channel roots with new switches for the SMB market.

Brocade Communications Systems Inc. this week today announced two new switches for the small to medium-sized business (SMB) market. The new switches include the Silkworm 3250 (8 ports) and the Silkworm 3850 (16 ports). These products are the first new hardware releases from Brocade in over a year and theres more to come at the end of April, said Jay Kidd, CTO of Brocades infrastructure group.
Brocade is sticking firmly to its Fibre Channel roots with the new switches despite the growing popularity of IP SANs at the low-end of the market. "The battle for SMBs will be between IP SANs versus FC," Kidd said. He said that small businesses didnt buy SANs in the past because of the high cost of FC, but this is changing.